1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method for managing articles. In particular, the present invention relates to an article location management method for managing information about the location of an article using wireless communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, miniature semiconductor devices into which ultrasmall integrated circuit (IC) chips and antennas for wireless communication use (hereinafter, radio frequency (RF) chips) are incorporated have been attracting a lot of attention. In RF chips, by transfer of communication signals (an operating electric field) using a wireless communication device (hereinafter, a reader/writer), data can be written and data can be read. It is to be noted that RF chips are also called IC tags, IC chips, RF tags, wireless tags, electronic tags, and the like.
For a field of application of RF chips, for example, article management for the retail industry can be given. At the present time, goods management using barcodes and the like is predominate; however, because barcodes are read optically, the barcodes cannot be read if there is any shielding over them. For RF chips, on the other hand, because data is read wirelessly, RF chips can be read even if there is shielding. For this reason, making article management more efficient, lower cost, and the like is expected. In addition, use in a wide range of applications, such as use in transportation tickets, air passenger tickets, automatic reset fares, and the like, is also expected. A mechanism for identification and management of people and things by a miniature semiconductor device with which transmission and reception of data is performed by wireless communication in this way is called radio frequency identification (RFID), and its use as a base technology of an IT-based society is gaining attention.
In article management in the retail industry, in addition to management of whether there are goods or not, management of the location of goods is becoming important, as well. If management of the location of goods can be achieved, for example, the time it takes to locate something in a warehouse can be shortened. In addition, because goods can be tracked, by knowledge of consumer trends, for example, services with an even higher value added to them can be provided.
For example, for a system for management of the location of an article in a warehouse, approximation of the location of an article to which a barcode that is read by a barcode reader is attached, based on the location of the barcode reader at the time the barcode is read, is proposed (refer to Patent Document 1). Furthermore, a system for direct management of the location of an article to which an RF chip that has a function for detection of the location of articles is attached, where a reader/writer reads the RF chip, is proposed (refer to Patent Document 2).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2001-31218    Patent Document 2: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-240913
However, in an article management method that uses barcodes, there is a problem in that a barcode cannot be read by a sensor if there is any shielding in front of the barcode. For this reason, for barcode management, there is a need to devise a storage method in which goods are arranged so that the barcodes are exposed and the like.
In addition, for an article management method that uses active RF tags for the RF tags, there is a problem in that introduction costs greatly increase. Furthermore, when passive RF tags are used in order to reduce introduction costs, there is a problem in that application is limited to small warehouses because communication distances are short.